VICTORIA — As parents brace for school strikes next week, the government and B.C.’s teachers admit they’re stuck inside a collective bargaining system that has, for almost 20 years, failed more often than not to resolve contract disputes before they spill over into classrooms.

The reasons vary — not enough money brought to the table by the province, a lack of trust by the teachers’ union — but whatever the source, B.C. kids next week will be caught in the fourth teachers’ strike since provincial bargaining began in 1994.

That provincewide approach, introduced by a then-NDP government, was supposed to fix the old local bargaining system, where almost 60 local school districts duked it out separately with local teacher unions across the province. Students were pulled out of school by 48 strikes and three lockouts over seven years in the late ‘80s to mid ‘90s.

The new system has produced three legislated contracts, one legislated “cooling-off period,” three strikes and only two negotiated deals. Today, the relationship appears as dysfunctional as ever.

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker said Wednesday the provincial government needs to come back to the bargaining table with enough money to fund the wage increases, class size and composition demands teachers want to see before rotating strikes begin Monday.

“I don’t believe it’s the bargaining structure,” Iker said. Instead, he said the problem is “government has tended to legislate too soon, rather than bring the necessary funding to the table to get a deal.”

Still, the BCTF would like to return to the old system, he said.

“We’d like to see a return to full local bargaining, and we know that’s not going to happen.”

At least the local system produced “the back and forth and give and take” of actual bargaining, which doesn’t happen anymore, said Iker.

Late Wednesday, Fassbender sent a letter to Iker saying the government will cut teacher wages 10 per cent once they begin striking next week.

The two sides have only managed to negotiate a deal twice since 1994, the first in 2006 with an almost 16-per-cent wage and benefit increase over five years and a $4,000 signing bonus. The second was in 2012, after a legislated cooling-off period produced a mediated deal that didn’t include salary increases.

B.C.’s long and troubled relationship with its 41,000 public school teachers stretches through three provincial governments and begins with Social Credit and then-premier Bill Vander Zalm, who gave teachers the right to strike in 1987.

The local bargaining model produced a number of deals, but also what the NDP government called the “whipsawing” effect, in which teacher unions would target weaker school districts to obtain lucrative deals that they could then leverage against the remaining holdouts.

“I was a school trustee when we had local bargaining,” said Education Minister Peter Fassbender, a former Langley school trustee.

“That is absolutely not in the best interest of children. It was worse than what we’re dealing with right now.”

Fassbender has said his Liberal government wants long-term labour peace with teachers while it tries to repair the relationship with the two parties and set up some sort of positive dialogue that extends beyond the seemingly never-ending contract disputes.

“Some people say the NDP did better, but they didn’t,” Fassbender said of his government’s relationship with teachers.

“They had equal acrimony. There hasn’t been a government the BCTF has seen as a friend. I’d like to change that.”

Premier Christy Clark said Wednesday she’d support simply locking teachers and government negotiators in a room to hammer things out before it begins to hurt children in classrooms.

“The problem with the whole bargaining structure we’ve had for the last 30 years is we sit down at the table, it’s the adults, and it’s all about money,” she told Vancouver’s CFOX FM radio.

“It’s never about quality of education. We’re never talking about the kids … it’s bad for education, it’s bad for kids, and we should just be bargaining this thing, getting it done, and acting like adults, which is what we tell kids to do all the time.”

Clark said more than half the public sector unions in the province have successfully negotiated deals with the B.C. government and it’s only fair to treat teachers the same. Most of those deals involved salary increases of 5.5 per cent over five years, with a promise of more if the economy outperforms expectations.

The BCTF is asking for a wage and cost-of-living package of 13.75 per cent over four years, which the government has said really amounts to almost 20 per cent total compensation and is unaffordable.

The province has countered with 7.25 per cent offer over six years, and a signing bonus of $1,200 per teacher if a deal is struck before the end of June.

Both the BCTF and government say parachuting a mediator into the dispute would do little to solve the problem at this point, since both sides remain far apart on their offers. Neither will agree to binding arbitration.

Appointing a fact-finder to at least write down a mutually accepted overview of the offers isn’t viable either, since that’s been used by government in the past to “feed their political gain,” said Iker.

Both sides return to the bargaining table for negotiations on today and Friday, though neither appears hopeful it will stave off next week’s strike given the long history of labour unrest.

“We seem to be on a treadmill sometimes,” said Fassbender. “We need to change that dynamic.”

Click here for a timeline of various provincial governments' dealings with the BCTF.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

BCTF and government share a dysfunctional relationship and tortured history

Video

Today's News

Best of Postmedia

Swoop has yet to pick up a single customer, but Canada’s newest ultra-low-cost carrier is already talking about expanding into a market that is just taking off. Launched by WestJet Airlines Ltd., Calgary-based Swoop started booking customers this month for flights that begin this summer connecting five Canadian cities. It is offering discounted fares on […]

Director Ryan Coogler admits he was surprised by the initial feedback he got from the bigwigs at Marvel Studios when he began sharing his vision for its next franchise, Black Panther. After all, he was set to make a $200-million epic blockbuster; a popcorn movie that mixed dazzling special effects, heart-stopping action sequences and sprawling […]

At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Mary Ormsby of the Toronto Star took one look at the fit, spandex-laden forms of the cross-country skiers and declared: “I have found my new sport.” Ormsby wasn’t a typical out-of-shape scribe. She had been an all-American volleyball player at Ohio State, so knew athletics from both sides. […]

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.